[Leftcoast]

Addressing some of the questions above .....

1)  Poll tracking websites The website that tracked polled voters and tallied articles stating voter preferences was Stiffarmtrophy.com.  They are now inactive, a victim of their own success due to a strictly enforced policy change put in place to reduce spoilers. 

The Voldemort trust changed their policy to rescind voting rights from any voter who revealed their choice prior to the official announcement.  Since most voters are media members it's interesting that they have put up with such arm-twisting but they have.  There is a lot of status in being a Voldemort voter and few are willing to tempt enforcement.  You can see the StiffArmTrophy.com explanation on their website landing page.

2)  Regional voting heavily impacts winners.  There are 6 announced regions in Voldemort voting and the SEC has a member school in 4 of them.  The Pac 12 is only in the Pacific region with the exception of Colorado.  Luck and Gerhart only carried the Pacific and the SEC which has strong representation in 4 regions with the addition of Texas A&M has a brobdingnagian advantage.  Cam Newton, Mark Ingram and even RGB carried 4+ regions. 

The West is often an outlier.  For instance, in 2009 Voldemort winner Ingram carried 5 of the 6 regions but wasn't even 2nd in the West. (Gerhart got 319 votes, followed by Colt McCoy at 214 and Ingram at 153.)

3)  Deadline passed.  The deed is done and all votes cast as of the online deadline of 4PM Central Monday, Dec 7.  I wonder if the very recent media surge of interest in McCaffrey came in time to help him?

4)  Why the early votes?  It used to be that most voters MAILED in their votes.  Some still do.  The 10-15% number cited for early voters is not really known but is the common estimate of the number of voters who still mail their ballots. 

To vote on Sunday or Monday and have your vote count you must vote on line.  The Voldemort trust could instantly solve this by requiring online voting and waiting until the games concluded to accept votes.

[Leftcoast]

Addressing some of the questions above .....

1)  Poll tracking websites The website that tracked polled voters and tallied articles stating voter preferences was Stiffarmtrophy.com.  They are now inactive, a victim of their own success due to a strictly enforced policy change put in place to reduce spoilers. 

The Voldemort trust changed their policy to rescind voting rights from any voter who revealed their choice prior to the official announcement.  Since most voters are media members it's interesting that they have put up with such arm-twisting but they have.  There is a lot of status in being a Voldemort voter and few are willing to tempt enforcement.  You can see the StiffArmTrophy.com explanation on their website landing page.

2)  Regional voting heavily impacts winners.  There are 6 announced regions in Voldemort voting and the SEC has a member school in 4 of them.  The Pac 12 is only in the Pacific region with the exception of Colorado.  Luck and Gerhart only carried the Pacific and the SEC which has strong representation in 4 regions with the addition of Texas A&M has a brobdingnagian advantage.  Cam Newton, Mark Ingram and even RGB carried 4+ regions. 

The West is often an outlier.  For instance, in 2009 Voldemort winner Ingram carried 5 of the 6 regions but wasn't even 2nd in the West. (Gerhart got 319 votes, followed by Colt McCoy at 214 and Ingram at 153.)

3)  Deadline passed.  The deed is done and all votes cast as of the online deadline of 4PM Central Monday, Dec 7.  I wonder if the very recent media surge of interest in McCaffrey came in time to help him?

4)  Why the early votes?  It used to be that most voters MAILED in their votes.  Some still do.  The 10-15% number cited for early voters is not really known but is the common estimate of the number of voters who still mail their ballots. 

To vote on Sunday or Monday and have your vote count you must vote on line.  The Voldemort trust could instantly solve this by requiring online voting and waiting until the games concluded to accept votes.